DEMOCRATS,OPINION: Waiting

The greatest air-bombardment week in history and Britain's
unprecedented closing of diplomatic communication channels (TIME, April
24), made D-Day seem almost at hand. Yet the nation, though jittery
with waiting, still waited confidently. Some of its leaders thought it
was waiting too confidently.

In Manhattan, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson said bluntly:
"Many here have settled into a frame of mind far different from that we
were in on Dec. 7, 1941. Then we had unity. . . . Our need to recapture
that unity today stands above all other needs. ....